1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to exercising devices and more particularly to a weight-lifting or exercising device wherein the spacing of the weights along the length of the bar and the masses of the individual weights may be selectively varied to accommodate people of different sizes and capabilities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Weight lifting exercises continue to enjoy ever-increasing popularity among people of all ages, both men and women, girls and boys, and both at home and in the gymnasium. There are hundreds of types of exercising and weight-lifting devices on the market today but by far the most widely used is the barbell-dumbbell combination. These devices employ large, ungainly, unsightly, masses which are relatively unportable and inconvenient to use and store. While these types of systems may have been convenient for use in building huge muscles by professional body builders and the like, they do not appear to meet the needs of today.
Today's exercisers use barbells and dumbbells to keep the body in shape and maintain muscle tone without trying to develop the over-muscled physique previously associated with weight-lifting. With both men and women, boys and girls taking an interest in physical fitness, most of the weight-lifting devices of the prior art are no longer suitable. When exercising with barbells or dumbbells, the weight lifter performs many different types of exercises and assumes many different postures requiring balance. Many exercisers, particularly the most inexperienced novices, attempt to lift excessive weights or otherwise lose their balance and drop the weights. This can result in serious bodily harm or physical damage to the floor or other equipment.
Today's weight-lifting devices must be designed for use by many different types of people having different sizes and different capabilities. The weights must be longitudinally adjustable along the bar and the masses of the individual weights must be selectively variable. While several types of weight-lifting devices are known in the prior art in which the mass may be varied by adding or removing a foreign material from the hollow interior portion of the body of the weight, they do not appear to be longitudinally positionable along the length of the bar. Furthermore, present-day needs require that the weights be shaped for maximum safety. All external surfaces should be rounded and the bar should not protrude out of the weight. While the traditional dumbbell configuration is rounded, the weights are not longitudinally positionable along the length of the bar and most dumbbells are not designed for use with barbells. Most of the longitudinal adjustment attained in the prior art is complex and time consuming since the individual weights must be removed from a bar of a first fixed length, placed on a bar of a second length and secured thereto. This is an extremely time consuming method of adjustment.
Additionally, it would be extremely convenient if the weights could be removed from the barbell and used as a dumbbell without attachment to a shorter bar or the like. Even greater convenience is achieved if the removed weight could be used on either the exerciser's hand or his foot without requiring attachments or alterations to the device.
All of these desirable characteristics are achieved in the exercising device of the present invention which allows the spacing of the weights along the length of the bar and the masses of the individual weights to be selectively varied to accommodate people of different sizes and capabilities while simultaneously allowing the weights to be removed from the bar and used as dumbbells on either the hands or the feet of the exerciser without requiring attachments to or alterations of the weights.